informationclearinghouse.info | Inter Press Service Omid Memarian interviews former CIA operative ROBERT BAER January 27, 2009 “IPS” — In an interview with IPS, Baer discussed the regional implications of the Gaza conflict and his take on Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, Hamas and Hezbollah, three major groups in the Middle East which have been called terrorist organisations. Excerpts from the interview follow. IPS: Some analysts believe that attacking Hamas in Gaza, two years after the 34-day war between Israel and Hezbollah, is

Three college students were arrested last week in Lansing, MI at Senator Carl Levin’s office while peacefully demanding that Senator Levin accept international law and US law and take immediate steps to cut off all military, diplomatic, and economic support for Israel accordingly. Please read their statements and demands below. To read the news story on this in the Lansing State Journal, click here: http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/article/20090123/NEWS01/901230332 Statement and Demands for Senator Carl Levin As concerned citizens of the World, of United

By Richard Norton-Taylor Gaza doctors detail burns to entire victims’ bodies from chemical that is forbidden to be used as a weapon …[ video ]… A doctor shows phosphorous bomb injuries in Gaza. Warning: contains graphic footage of war injuries Link to this video Video showing injuries consistent with the use of white phosporous shells has been filmed inside hospitals treating Palestinian wounded in Gaza City. Contact with the shell remnants causes severe burns, sometimes burning the skin to the

By John M. Miller Tell Your Senator: Nation’s Top Intelligence Post Must Go to Someone Who Respects Human Rights – Not Admiral Blair! ETAN Action ALERT Call your Senators and tell them that you oppose the confirmation of Admiral Dennis Blair as President Obama’s Director of National Intelligence. Call today toll free at 800-828-0498/800-473-6711 and e-mail them via the Senate website ( http://senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm). Talking Points * Adm. Blair has a poor human rights record. As head of the Pacific Command,

By Matthew Wagner Two soldiers made their way through the winding streets of Gaza City, carefully watching for booby traps. Their objective was to hunt down Hamas terrorists and locate caches of Kassam and Grad rockets and other arms. As they deliberated whether to turn left or right at an intersection, a woman dressed from head to foot in black appeared from out of nowhere. “Go this way,” she said, pointing to the right. For some reason, the two soldiers

By Matthew Wagner Qatar and Mauritania have severed economic and political ties with Israel in protest against the war in Gaza, Al Jazeera has learned. The move announced on Friday followed calls by Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president, and Khaled Meshaal, the exiled leader of Hamas, for all Arab nations to cut ties with Israel. Addressing leaders at an emergency Arab summit in Doha, the Qatari capital, al-Assad declared that the Arab initiative for peace with Israel was now “dead”.

Friedman supports civilian suffering as “education” Action Alert New York Times foreign affairs columnist Thomas Friedman endorsed terrorism in a January 14 column defending Israel’s attacks on the Gaza Strip. To answer his own question about Israel’s plan–“What is the goal?”–Friedman referred back to the 2006 attacks on Lebanon, which killed about 1,000 Lebanese civilians. To Friedman, this was the “education” of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah: Israel’s counterstrategy was to use its air force to pummel Hezbollah and, while

By A.B. Yehoshua Dear Gideon, You remember that in recent years I called you occasionally to praise you for your articles and your writing about the wrongs done to the Palestinians in the administered territories, whether by the army or by the settlers. Physical wrongs, land expropriations, acts of abuse, perversions of justice and so on. I told you that it is very difficult to read what you write, because it weighs on our conscience, but that the work you

By News Agencies Turkey’s prime minister on Friday said Israel should be barred from the United Nations while it ignores the body’s calls to stop fighting in Gaza. “How is such a country, which does not implement resolutions of the UN Security Council, allowed to enter through the gates of the UN (headquarters)?” Recep Tayyip Erdogan said. Erdogan spoke before UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon arrives in Ankara to discuss the conflict. His comments reflected a growing anger in Turkey,